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‘The 100’ Season 2 Episode 10 Recap: “Survival of the Fittest”

After Clarke’s (Eliza Taylor) somewhat heartbreaking decision to send Bellamy (Bob Morley) into Mount Weather so he can be the “inside man,” Lincoln (Ricky Whittle) and Bellamy have set out on the mission. And they’re not the only Grounder and Sky Person pair. Throughout this episode, several characters were paired off in seemingly unlike couples, just like them.

With the arrival of the Grounders into Camp Jaha, Kane (Henry Ian Cusick) takes it upon himself to unite the two groups, but that goes to hell when Murphy (Richard Harmon) and another Grounder get into a fight, prompting Grounders and Sky People alike to fight too.

While this is going down, Clarke, Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey), and some other Grounders are having a discussion about what to do to attack Mount Weather. Although Clarke has full faith that Bellamy can get in and take down their defenses, Lexa thinks that “waiting for Bellamy is not a plan. It’s a prayer. One that’s not likely to be answered.” Her comment makes Clarke want to walk out and get some air, but as she’s walking in the woods, she finds that a Grounder who was also at the meeting starts to shoot at her with his arrows. Running away from him, she finds Byrne (Kendall Cross) who’s had her arm ripped out and tells Clarke to save herself before she collapses on the ground and dies. Clarke runs off, but gets attacked and thrown to the ground by the Grounder. Before he can fatally stab Clarke, she gets saved by Lexa.

Lexa then lets Clarke take the kill shot, but as she’s about to shoot the Grounder, they get interrupted by a feral roar. It’s a crazy gorilla! And even worse, they run directly into its feeding ground, an abandoned zoo equipped with several cages. Our first pair, Clarke and Lexa, after a lot of running and a major injury to Lexa’s arm, lock themselves up in one of them to keep away. Clarke patches Lexa’s arm up, after which they successfully escape the cage and manage to trap the gorilla in there.

After the fight between the Grounders and Sky People, each group has taken to training for the war on Mount Weather by themselves. Octavia spends the day watching and wanting to train/fight with the Grounders, but when the time comes, she gets her “ass kicked” by a Grounder. Despite the constant beating, she doesn’t back down, which catches Indra’s (Adina Porter) attention. Indra sees the natural strength and determination in Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) and stops the fight from continuing. Later on, Indra sits down with Octavia (second pair) and offers to train her into a great warrior if she’s willing to become her Second, her apprentice. Octavia agrees with a slight smile on her face. She feels like she finally belongs.

The third pair and the two outsiders, Murphy and Jaha (Isaiah Washington) visit Wells’ grave for the night. They decide to sleep at the dropship for the night, which is where Jaha offers Murphy the opportunity to go with him and other Sky People to travel to the City of Light. The next morning, he takes the opportunity, which is somewhat a shame because I really like watching Murphy, but not Jaha. Unfortunately, this seems to be the only way his character will be “redeemed” of his past actions.

After what they went through with the gorilla, Lexa lets Clarke know that her heart shows no sign of weakness. Clarke then gets the brilliant idea that if Bellamy can release the Grounder prisoners from their cages in Mount Weather, then they can bring them down. We know Clarke has immense faith in Bellamy that he can do this, but as Lexa points out, if he can’t get inside, they can’t win.

Speaking of, let’s finally catch up with the last pair. Lincoln’s posing as a Reaper and Bellamy as a Grounder and his prisoner when they are found by a raider party. Their plan is that when the Mountain Men come out with the Reaper drug, Lincoln will take the drug and run, causing the Reapers to go after him, the Grounders to run away, and the Mountain Men left to deal with them.

Everything seems to be according to plan as the Grounders including Bellamy are either picked for harvesting or the Cerberus Project. Unfortunately, they’re all picked for harvesting, which means their blood will be drained. Bellamy’s last hope is Lincoln, but even he doesn’t go through with the plan. He succumbs to his need for the Reaper drug and instead of taking it and running away, he kneels and is injected with it. Bellamy puts up a valiant fight trying to get away, but is ultimately taken into Mount Weather as a prisoner.

Notes

The theme of strength vs. weakness continues to be evident, especially when Bellamy makes the comment to Lincoln that he made his sister Octavia stronger.

Octavia was such a badass in this episode. I also love that she seems to be the most well-rounded out of everyone. She can very easily assimilate herself into a group, probably because she was never really a part of one when she was growing up.

The Clarke/Lexa ship is sailing, at least in my heart. I noticed that most of their scenes paralleled some previous Bellamy/Clarke ones (like “I need you,” Lexa/Bellamy watching Clarke sleep, and in general, Bellamy and Lexa have major heart eyes for Clarke), most likely because the three have shared similar leadership moments.

RIP Byrne

“Camp You is that way.” – sassy Murphy

Whenever “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” was said by either Kane or Octavia, all I could hear in my mind was the Kelly Clarkson song.

I’m really intrigued to hear more about how the Grounder leader’s spirit chooses who will be the next leader. I’m betting that if Lexa dies this season, Clarke will probably be chosen. As for whether she’ll accept to lead the Grounders, I’m not sure.